MICHAEL Lee Chin, the new owner of the National Commercial Bank, says there are great opportunities for investment in Jamaica, a fact underlined by his decision to pay US$217 million for the government’s 75 per cent of the bank.

At the same time, Lee Chin, the Jamaican-born businessman who controls one of Canada’s largest mutual funds — AIC Funds Management Inc — warned entrepreneurs that arrogance after success is the fastest route to failure.

“Success begets arrogance, arrogance begets failure,” he told the approximately 700 guests who attended Wednesday night’s dinner at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel at which Donna Duncan-Scott, the CEO of Jamaica Money Market Brokers (JMMB), was named the Business Observer Business Leader of the Year Award 2001.

“The natural by-product of success is failure,” Lee Chin said. “So as a professional investor, I start off with the assumption that every business will eventually regress to mediocrity and then to extinction. So starting on that premise, a business person may be able to keep out of trouble.”

Lee Chin, whose AIC has over Can$445 billion in assets under management, made the observation in outlining his own recipe for success, which rests on three basic principles:

* being able to identify opportunity;

* keeping emotion out of decision-making;

* the maintenance of core values such as honesty and integrity.

“…It does not require an extraordinary IQ, or an unusual business insight or inside information,” he stressed. “What is needed is a sound intellectual framework for decision-making — a philosophy/value system (and) principles.”

“Secondly,” said Lee Chin, “(You need) the ability to keep emotions from corroding that framework. In other words, stick to the philosophy.”

It helped, he added, “to be in the right place at the right time”.

But it was critical, Lee Chin argued, for entrepreneurs to be able to recognise the opportunities when they arise, as they often do in periods of crisis, such as existing in Jamaica at this time.

It was this crisis in Jamaica, for instance, that afforded AIC the opportunity to acquire NCB, he said.

Noting that the components for the Chinese words for crisis individually meant danger and opportunity, Lee Chin said the problem was that in periods of crisis people often focused on the danger component rather than the opportunity. The trick, in an environment of crisis, was to be able to “keep emotions in check”.

“Too many businessmen direct their energies in skipping the risk instead of grasping the chances,” he said.

The Business Observer Business Leader of the Year Award was launched in 1996 with the aim of recognising entrepreneurs and people who make substantial contributions to corporate leadership in Jamaica and to promote private enterprise in the island.

Duncan-Scott, whose company has J$41 billion in funds under management and profit last year of $320 million, won the award from among nine nominees.

In her acceptance remarks, Duncan-Scott said the success of JMMB was the result of teamwork and the effort of the organisation to foster spirituality and love.

“Love guides our work,” she said. “….We create an atmosphere that maintains integrity and fair play.”